LAUSR

her schizophrenia decreased, her negative symptoms were controlled, and she did not have the adverse effects of risperidone. At the age of 26 years, when last admitted, the patient was given a 400-mg aripiprazole LAI. At the end of the second injection (2 months later), she described only minimal psychotic symptoms, but a marked improvement in the negative and cognitive symptoms associated with schizophrenia. She then left the acute psychiatric ward and continued her LAI aripiprazole treatment each month. She explained that aripiprazole LAI not only relieved her schizophrenic symptoms (psychotic, negative, and cognitive) but also reduced the craving for amphetamines. Over the next year, the patient said she was not taking amphetamines, which was confirmed by repeated urine drug testing. One year later (age 27 years), the patient started working in a kitchen preparing airline meals and remained on aripiprazole LAI treatment. We report a schizophrenic patient with significant negative symptoms initially, followed by self-medication with amphetamines, resulting in many admissions for schizophrenic exacerbation, amphetamine psychosis, or abstinence from amphetamines use. The patient was eventually prescribed aripiprazole LAI, which appeared to have the beneficial effects of stabilizing her schizophrenic symptoms and reducing the craving for amphetamines. Aripiprazole is thought to stabilize dopamine and serotonin activity in the nucleus accumbens, ventral tegmental area, and prefrontal cortex, contributing to the management of positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. Also, the use of aripiprazole may stabilize dopamine neurotransmission in the nucleus accumbens andmay have benefits for patients with concomitant schizophrenia and amphetamines use. Few studies have been conducted on the use of aripiprazole in patients with concomitant schizophrenia and amphetamine use disorder. One such study found that replacing an antipsychotic with aripiprazole resulted in improved symptoms in patients with concomitant schizoaffective disorder and substance use disorder. Another similar study showed that aripiprazole reduced craving in patients with concomitant schizophrenia and cocaine use disorder. Recently, a study compared clinical and quality-of-life outcomes after 12 months of using 2 LAIs (aripiprazole and paliperidone) in patients with comorbid psychosis and substance use disorder. Both LAIs resulted in improvement in clinical status, craving, and quality of life, but the effect of aripiprazole LAI on craving and quality of life was greater than that of paliperidone LAI. For